THE MG Rover Trust Fund is to be wound up after more than seven years – without a penny going to 6,500 former workers forced out of Longbridge.

Trustees are calling time on the long-running cash saga after banking giant HBOS withdrew £12.5 million earmarked for ex-employees and the High Court rejected a legal bid for a reprieve earlier this year.

The news comes more than seven years after former Phoenix Venture Holdings chairman John Towers pledged up to £30 million for those made redundant.

It also follows a fruitless last-ditch plea to the Phoenix Four for personal contributions from their reported £42 million fortunes.

Now plans have been drawn up to donate just over £20,000 originally allocated to set up the Trust Fund to a local children’s charity, dependent on workers’ approval.

Birmingham historian Carl Chinn, one of the four trustees, said: “After all this time, it is very disappointing and upsetting.

‘‘The former directors have not seen fit to put substantial funds into the Trust to enable us to make proper payouts to the workers.

“It is a very sad end to the saga. These people are very wealthy men based on the money we know they received from their time at Longbridge.

"There is just over £20,000 available and that will go to charity if ex-workers agree. There were genuine hopes (of payouts) but the Trust is now set to be wound up.”

Fellow trustee and former Unite union official Eric McDonald said: “The only thing we can say about the Phoenix Four is that they are the only people who have done very nicely, thank you, out of the collapse of MG Rover.

“They have all done exceptionally well out of a company they only paid £10 for. They have become millionaires and have made no attempt to defend their positions.

‘‘They got £42 million and all the MG Rover workers got was their redundancy pay from the state.”

Former workers are now being asked to approve plans – through the Justice for Rover Workers website or Unite union – to channel the £20,000 available to a children’s charity.